Slim-structured electro-floating display system based on the polarization-controlled optical path

A new slim-type electro-floating display system based on the polarization-controlled optical path is proposed. In the proposed system, the optical path between the input plane and Fresnel lens can be made recursive by repetitive transmission and reflection of the input beam by employing a new polarization-based optical path controller (P-OPC), which is composed of two quaterwave plates, a half mirror and a reflective polarizer. Based on this P-OPC, the absolute optical path between the input plane and Fresnel lens, virtually representing the physical depth of the display system, can be reduced down to one third of its original path, which results in the same rate of decrease in the volume size of the display system. The operational principle of the proposed system is analyzed with the Jones matrix. In addition, to confirm the feasibility of the proposed system, experiments with test prototypes are carried out, and the results are comparatively discussed with those of the conventional system.